Democrats walked out of a House committee hearing on contraception and religious freedom on Thursday morning after Darrell Issa, the committee chairman, failed to include any women witnesses. The news was greeted with outrage on Twitter, some people urging followers to contact the Republican congressman directly to tell him how they felt about women not being included in a hearing on birth control.

The walkout was in response to the morning panel at the committee hearing, to examine religious liberty and the Obama administration's mandate that health insurers cover contraception, being made up exclusively of men from religious groups.

"Where are the women?" congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, said, according to ABC News.

Maloney said she did not see a single female representing the "tens of millions" of women across the county who need insurance for basic preventative healthcare.

Maloney criticised Issa for wanting to "roll back the fundamental rights of women to a time when the government thought what happens in the bedroom is their business."

"We will not be forced back to that primitive era," she said. Maloney left along with Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mike Quigley.

Outside the hearing, Holmes Norton told reporters she walked out because it was being conducted like an "autocratic regime", according to the Huffington Post.

In advance, Issa was asked to include a female witness at the hearing, but he refused. In a letter, he insisted that the hearing should focus on the rules' alleged infringement on "religious liberty," not contraception coverage, and denied the request.

At the hearing on Thursday morning, congressman Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat, asked Issa to reconsider and let the witness, Sandra Fluke, testify, pointing out that she was in the audience.

Issa refused. He complained that the Democrats had not submitted the name of the witness in time and that she was "not appropriately qualified".

Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown Law Center, would have spoken about a classmate who lost an ovary because of a syndrome that causes ovarian cysts. Georgetown, which is affiliated with the Catholic church, does not insure contraceptives, which are used to treat the condition.

Cummings accused Issa of creating "conspiracy hearing" and said that failing to include women "commits a massive injustice by trying to pretend that the views of millions of women across the country are meaningless."

Among the witnesses invited by Issa to the hearing, called "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?" was a representative of Catholic bishops, who oppose Obama's amended plan on heath insurance.

Democrats also complained that representatives from the Catholic Health Association, which is run by a woman who supports Obama's measures, was also not invited.